Connected Car-Connected City App Pursuit Finalists Named

Back in August, Ford announced the Connected Car-Connected City App Pursuit, which took place last week at the Ford Developer Conference at the Connected Car Expo. Today, the 10 finalists have been announced, culled from more than 170 developers from 15 different countries.

All participants were provided the information necessary to work with SmartDeviceLink, which is Ford’s open-source equivalent to SYNC AppLink. The AppLink APIs and the Ford Developer Conference itself were both announced back at the 2014 International Consumer Electronics Show in January.

“Embracing open innovation and engaging the software developer community is critical for the future of the connected car and ensuring that we continue to keep pace with advances in consumer electronics,” said John Ellis, global technologist at Ford. “The feedback we’ve received from developers underscores the need for an open industry standard to reduce market fragmentation and make it easier for them to develop and integrate new apps for the car.”

Per Ford, the ten Connected Car-Connected City App Pursuit finalists are as follows:

Live Drive – Developed by a team from Kelley Blue Book Cox Automotive, turns safe driving into a social game, featuring leaderboards and user feedback

Joyride –Developed by Rockfish, notifies drivers of interesting destinations in their vicinity

Pure Focus – Developed by a team from IBM, a reward-based social app that allows drivers to interact with one another and provide feedback on driving

MapRadio – Developed by a team from Slovenia, a personalized driving experience that includes customizable weather, traffic, calendar integration, personalized news, accidents, local music, and routing

Trace – Developed by a team at Concur, tracks mileage for business purporses

FuelSignal – Developed by FuelSignal, detects a vehicle’s fuel levels and recommends nearby gas stations, can also act as a virtual coupon and wallet

myLifeSync –Developed by Lochbridge, a data aggregator that displays important information relative to schedule and daily life

Notify – Developed by Igor Barinov, a text-to-voice program that operates through SYNC

iAlert – Developed by a team from Progressive Insurance and Traction Labs, detects vehicle diagnostic data, suggests and schedules maintenance

3sACrowd – Developed by Alcatel-Lucent, uses Bluetooth and Wi-Fi to detect if there are other passengers in the car and gives the caller the option of not completing the call if privacy is preferred, leaves the driver a notification to be read later

The 10 finalists will now have two months to tweak their apps before their final presentation at the Connected Car Expo at the LA Auto Show in November, where one grand prize winner will earn the right to take the stage for the big announcement at the 2015 International Consumer Electronics Show.

Update: Kelley Blue Book changed to Cox Automotive to more accurately reflect association to larger organization